Audioengine A5+ Bluetooth Speakers, 150W, Bookshelf Design, Home Theater System

After months of research, I decided to go with Audioengine. The A2's looked like all I would need, but after reading the great reviews of the A5's, I chose the A5+ Bamboo. I ordered them on Friday late AM, and received them on Saturday morning (overnite FEDEX, $3.99). I've been breaking them in all day (not that I noticed a problem out of the box), as the mftr suggests. I'm feeding them the signal from a Fiio E-10 DAC, plugged into the USB on my iMac. They are mounted on a pair of dense foam blocks, to raise them slightly. I'm not sure I see the advantages of using the optional stands since they tilt the speaker back and change the plane of the tweeter and woofer. I had to re-arrange some items on my office shelves to prevent resonance during some of the lower bass passages.The packaging was stellar, with cables and speakers covered by some nice soft, cloth bags. The bags will come in handy to put over the speakers while I'm away, and help prevent dust settling on the speaker cones. Anyway, the setup is straightforward, and AE even provides some good speaker wire to connect the two units. They look fantastic. The manual says the sugar compounds in the bamboo are 'carbonized' and 'caramelized' to bring out the darker wood tones. It also provides a sweeter sound (ahem). Whatever. They look great, and seem to be finely finished. Worth the extra money for this option, I think.Okay, now for the sound. An audiophile of sorts, I have a history of buying the best-value components based on my readings of Stereophile, Absolute Sound, and high end audio blogs. My tunes are all Flac, Apple Lossless, or AIFF-C files. Of course, my iTunes purchases are 256Kb conversions...can't help that. I train my ears by going to many pop and classical concerts and listening for the qualities that make live music so enjoyable. So, I don't take my speakers lightly...I have some expectations. How do I rate the A5+'s? I couldn't be happier considering what I paid. The speakers never seem to strain, even at very high volumes. The only thing I notice is some compression of the midrange at VERY high volumes. The bass hangs in there, albeit cutoff below 50hz. I do miss that very bottom octave, however. Kettledrums just don't have that extra punch you expect. This is not a criticism; maybe it's just a reason to get a subwooofer. I rarely listen at very high levels since I'm usually working while listening. Female vocalists sound very natural, with no boxiness in the lower ranges. Sibilants sound very natural, and maybe a tad soft. Acoustic instruments have some body to them attesting to the good midrange. Imaging is excellent, and I find the placement is not super-critical. Equidistant spacing, lightly angled in seems to be just fine. (Note that AE suggests having at least 6" of space behind the speakers, and they should be at least 6" away from a side wall.) When I move, I don't notice shifting of frequencies, which means the dispersion of the tweeters seems to be very good. The soundstage is wide, very wide on some tunes. No problem with that. The sound is so darned neutral, that I can listen for hours and not get weary.As much as I enjoy listening to music through my IEM's (Ultimate Ears Triple Fi 10 Pro's), it is really nice to be 'sitting in the audience' and listening to these speakers. With the lights down, they disappear, and you get that great experience of being there in the studio or concert hall. I'm sure there are better speakers out there that probably cost more, however I just can't fault the A5+'s. An audio bargain in my humble opinion.Update 10/30/2013I'm still loving these speakers. I missed the lower octave however, so I took a subwoofer I bought at Radio Shack several years ago, and plugged it in to the speakers. Now, I have a fuller experience of my music. I really love this system, and I have had no problems with it. No hum, pops, clicks, and the cases look as beautiful as the day I bought them.Update 10/12/2014After adding the subwoofer, I became aware of some mid-bass boominess, and found it hard to balance the sound using the cutoff on the subwoofer. I looked in to the DS2 foam speaker stands as a possible solution. These stands will raise not only the speaker, but the angle of the woofer. When the speakers sit flat on a desk, the woofers double some of the bass frequencies causing some imbalance. Tilting them back seems to resolve this problem. The stands are expensive, so maybe you can find a makeshift way of testing this theory to see if its worth pursuing. I have recently taken the Radio Shack subwoofer out of the office and into the living room. I'm thinking of upgrading the A5+'s with the Audioengine subwoofer. I really have fallen in love with these speakers over the years. I've had NO issues with them.

Sound is such a subjective matter so please bear that in mind in reading my review. See if you think what I like and listen to might concur with your own personal tastes.Background.I own a high end stereo system probaly costing $30K that I never use. Also a Bose 5.1 surround sound system for the TV and DVD's. And for my 2nd computer a Klipsch THX 2.1 system. Also a Klipsch player for an iPod. Of couse they all have their unique sounds - well the expensive stereo system has no sound as of now as I felt the speakers (very, very large KEF's) were not sounding right and even after a sound engineer told me they were fine my ear said "No" because I knew how they could sound from a class A amp - so I've listened to no quality music system these last few years. I don't class the Bose system as suitable for serious music listening, but they do OK for movies. Oh, and my choice for headphones are 2 pairs of Sennheiser.So given that background lets get to the business. In my opinion, and for my taste, these Audioengine A5+ speakers + S8 woofer are remarkable. I would describe the sound a neutral (hard to find these days). That does not mean there is no bass but its only there when it should be and then its tight and does not sound like its being played through a pillow. This is the kind of sound that is not tiring and can be listened to for hours on end.When I first connected the Audioengine system up, by mistake, I did not connect the woofer. Even without it the A5+ speakers sound good, really good, but adding the woofer does make a difference for sure, and I think if you are after quality sound it is needed. Of course it can be added later as funds allow because just the A5+'s are good on their own.For a low priced system the Klipsch system replaced a pair of Bose (no woofer) on my 2nd computer and were noticable cleaner sounding with better bass because of their woofer, than the pair of Bose with no woofer. For a low priced system I could certainly live with the Klipsch. But my listening habbits have changed over 40 years and I now spend many hours a day working in front of a computer at home. That's the only time I get to listen to music - as well as in the car. I hadn't heard good sound for so long I decided to try the Audioengine system for the computer but was really blown away by how good it was. I didn't really trust the many good reviews I'd seen.The stereo image is so good with the A5+'s they create a very wide sound stage that seems to emanate slighting above and between the 2 speakers. I could hear singers taking a breath and new sounds on a violin that the bow made as it was pulled across the strings, that had not been there before. Bear in mind I am feeding only lossless MP3 files played out of iTunes - not vinyl tracks played on my Linn LP12 turntable.Are they perfect - no that's not possible for just over $700 (I am adding the DAC and stands now so will be into the system for close to $1,000) but in terms of the sound quality at this price they are quite remarkable. Beautifully packaged even the UPS driver who bounced the box down his truck steps could not hurt them as they sit a couple of inches inside their box surrounded by foam packaging. They are heavy and look like a quality product that the manufacturer has been proud to produce.Like all good speaker systems they sound better loud as you can feel the bass. It's tempting to set the woofer volume too high but playing the system loud then over cooks the bass and it looses something. The music is not balanced. I also had a little recording business in my youth so became very critical on how sound was mixed. What would be nice is a low volume setting on the remote that boosts the bass when playing at low volume. The woofer has a Phase control so the woofer cone can sync with the speaker cones to improve bass sound. Also a Crossover knob to set where in the frequency range the woofer comes in - just a matter of setting where you like it. And then a Volume control. Again I say don't be tempted to set this too high. I would set it where it sounds right then turn down just a hair. If you play at really high volume then it probably needs setting even lower. After 50 hours of burning in they can only improve. I wish I had gotten better with age!So yea I like em very much. One of my better buying choices.